Tuesday, July 24, 2007

new que

So, we recently attended an event hosted by Heritage Foods USA called THE NEW QUE. It was held at the Studioplex on Auburn Av in Atlanta. The event matched some of the best local Chefs with some of the best local Pig Farmers. This was a chance for the chefs to get their face and restaurant out in front of a large, hungry crowd. But more importantly, it was a chance for BBQ lovers to learn about where their pork comes from and who is raising it. Like everything in the food world, PORK has gone gourmet. Restaurants are promoting fresh and local and everyone wants to know where and how it was raised. Nowdays, Farmers are raising pedigree pigs and raising them with lots of TLC. Special diets, large roaming and grazing space and more humane ways of production, make for better tasting pork. It was evident at THE NEW QUE. When you hook up Linton Hopkins of Restaurant Eugene with Charlotte and Wes Swancy of Riverview Farms or Joe Truex of Repast with Big Sandy and his Tamworth hogs - it’s pure HOG HEAVEN. It was not just straight ahead BBQ. You could have BBQ pork tacos, BBQ pork belly over local hominy, mini sausage dogs, pulled pork sandwichs, BBQ Brunswick Stew, just to name a few. Wynn Pennington of Motovino was pouring his wines. His spanish white wine goes great with any of the BBQ. Sweetwater provided beers. The Hummer Brew was a good match with the QUE, but so were all their beers. It was a really good turn out, with a hungry crowd. Lots of the regular foodies and hopefully some new recruits.